India OEM

First up at this week's Strategy Roundtable was Cheryl Yeoh presenting CityPockets , an online destination, and an app for managing daily deals across a wide range of sites. The daily deal and group buying market has really heated up, with numerous sites offering variations on the basic value proposition. But for Cheryl, the problem is that she needs critical mass.

I asked her not to assume that investors will be investing in this business idea, at least not until she can acquire some level of validation, which means tens, if not hundreds of thousands of customers, and several partnerships with daily deal sites.

Venture capitalists today don't exactly practice venture capital. Investors are investing in proven concepts - they call those "momentum investments." As a result, the expectation is that you have to figure out a way to get to some level of momentum on your own (by bootstrapping) or with small doses of angel money - "drip financing" so to speak. To be successful, you need to understand this basic philosophy, and work within its constraints.

Next Anuj Mishra with Gnosis India presented an idea of doing highly technical workshops (CAD, Robotics) for students all around India, including rural India. I asked Anuj who would be teaching these workshops, and who would be paying for them. In today's India, people with high-end engineering skills are in high demand. They make a lot of money, and nothing in Anuj's business model convinced me that these people have any interest or incentive to go around teaching, especially in rural India. I asked him to abandon this idea and find a better one.

Strategy Roundtable: Find High Velocity Channels - ReadWriteWeb (blog)

It will draw on real campaigns from travel, entertainment, OEM and automotive brands to provide insight into market size and consumer behaviour across these fast-growing regions.

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Which mobile ads work best in emerging markets? - Mobile Entertainment

8.13 , -1.29 , -13.69% ) , a global developer of custom engineered and application specific products and solutions, today announced operating results for the Fiscal 2011 first quarter ended July 31, 2010.

First-Quarter Fiscal 2011 Methode's first-quarter Fiscal 2011 net sales increased $8.5 million, or 9.5 percent, to $98.3 million from $89.8 million in the first quarter of Fiscal 2010 notwithstanding the loss of sales to Delphi, which were $7.5 million in the first quarter of Fiscal 2010. Net income increased to $4.1 million, or $0.11 per share, in the Fiscal 2011 period compared to breakeven in the same period of Fiscal 2010. No restructuring expenses, a gain of $1.2 million on a life insurance policy, and favorable selling and administrative expenses, partially offset by lower other income and higher tax expenses, contributed to higher net income in the Fiscal 2011 first quarter compared to the same period last year.

Methode recorded no restructuring charges during the Fiscal 2011 first quarter compared to restructuring charges of $3.6 million, before and after-tax, or $0.10 per share, during the Fiscal 2010 first quarter. Excluding restructuring charges, Methode's net income was $3.5 million, or $0.10 per share, in the first quarter of Fiscal 2010.

Consolidated gross margins (including other income) as a percentage of sales decreased to 19.8 percent in the Fiscal 2011 first quarter from 22.6 percent in the comparable period of Fiscal 2010, due in part to the loss of sales to Delphi, higher design and overhead costs in the Company's U.S.-based Automotive and Power Products businesses, as well as lower other income in the Fiscal 2011 period compared to the Fiscal 2010 period relating to lower engineering design fees received in the Company's European Automotive business.

Methode Electronics, Inc. Reports Fiscal 2011 First-Quarter Results - MarketWatch (press release)

Single-enclosure system developed to provide high accuracy positioning for challenging on-machine environments '); document.write(' '); document.write(' '); document.write(' '); // --> (Calgary, Alberta, Canada, August 31th, 2010) ? NovAtel Inc., (NovAtel) an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of precise positioning technology, today introduced the latest addition to their SMART antenna line. The SMART-MR10? is the first in a new family of GPS+GLONASS L1+L2+L-band integrated receiver and antenna products.

The SMART-MR10 provides scalable positioning accuracies down to 2cm using NovAtel?s AdVance® RTK. It supports GL1DE® firmware, which uses the very accurate carrier phase measurements to provide ultra smooth positions and highly accurate pass-to-pass capabilities for superior performance in agricultural steering and guidance applications. ALIGN® firmware is also supported, delivering NovAtel?s industry-leading GNSS-derived heading information.

Designed to perform in challenging on-machine environments, the SMART-MR10 has a metal base combined with a rugged 23-pin connector, daylight readable LEDs and integrated Bluetooth communications. It is IP67 rated in addition to being qualified against many MIL-STD-810G environmental standards. The SMART-MR10 has an input voltage range from +9 to +36VDC for seamless operation on both 12- and 24-Volt machines, and complies with vehicular standards ISO 7637 and ISO 15003 which relate to electrical surges and abnormal electrical conditions.

Designed to perform in challenging on-machine environments, the SMART-MR10 has a metal base combined with a rugged 23-pin connector, daylight readable LEDs and integrated Bluetooth communications. It is IP67 rated in addition to being qualified against many MIL-STD-810G environmental standards. The SMART-MR10 has an input voltage range from +9 to +36VDC for seamless operation on both 12- and 24-Volt machines, and complies with vehicular standards ISO 7637 and ISO 15003 which relate to electrical surges and abnormal electrical conditions. ?The SMART-MR10 is an exciting and innovative product that fully supports NovAtel?s commitment to the system integrator and OEM market. A high-end integrated SMART antenna will provide our customers with industry-leading positioning technology for current and emerging on-machine applications,? said Thomas Morley, Product Manager for NovAtel?s Machine Sensors product line.

NovAtel Announces SMART-MR10 GNSS Receiver/Antenna - Amerisurv

Taipei, Sept. 1 (CNA) The Taiwan-based Institute for Information Industry (III) said Wednesday that it would collaborate with India's Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology (CEWIT) to develop 4G broadband wireless technologies and products.

The III and CEWIT signed a three-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) focusing on R&D in Taipei Wednesday, marking the first cooperation agreement between the institutes, the III said.

The deal aims to help Taiwanese manufacturers become core network equipment suppliers, it said. "With fast-growing India expected to become one of the largest 3G and 4G markets in the world, the proposed R&D cooperation is expected to assist Taiwanese manufactures to step into the giant market early," said C.K. Lee, chief executive officer of the III.

The institutes will start with cooperation in developing 4G relay station technologies, hoping that new communication products enable Taiwan's manufacturers -- mostly focused on OEM businesses -- to earn higher profit margins by making network equipment instead of customer premises equipment, the III said in a press release.

Taiwan, India to co-develop 4G broadband wireless products - Focus Taiwan News Channel